Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Hello, blog friends! I'm popping in with a few Valentine's Day items that are available in the Etsy Shop. It's always a strange transition going from the Christmas holiday right into Valentine's Day, but here we are!

Gorgeous glittery clothespins come in red or blush-pink. Use them in your home decor--hang up your hearts or photos of your loves. Use them on gifts, treats or party favors--clip your bags closed or attach a tag. Anything goes!

There are also a couple of pink-themed gift wrap / embellishment / paper kits with which I think you'll be smitten. Choose from the main Pink & Gold kit or the add-on Pink + Gold + Beet (purple). (Or get both! They play so nicely together :)

While they are not Valentine's Day specific, they offer enough sweetness to get the job done. Both feature lots of tags, trims, and embellishments like tassels, bows, doilies, feathers, and cupcake liners.

Glitter + pink + bows + hearts + gold = LOVE!

But if you are really set on Valentine-specific, check back on Wednesday, January 25th. I'll be releasing a Limited Edition Valentine's Day kit and you'll be able to see the entire rundown right here!

There are a few more Happy Heart's Day items coming by the end of next week, like the aforementioned Valentine's Day kit. I'd love to meet you back here on Wednesday, the 25th for the reveal of those. Join me?

As always, thanks for stopping by the blog! Have a wonderful Wednesday, friends!

Monday, January 9, 2017

Happy New Year, blog friends! It's that time when the urge to purge, declutter, deep clean, and reorganize hits many of us. For me, the feeling came on fairly strong after Christmas and 2 weeks later, I've still got the bug. It's so bad, in fact, that I developed an entire cleaning/organization schedule to stay on top of it all (because normally, housekeeping isn't my greatest endeavor). In my post today, I'll share how I've used a few supplies from the Papertrey InkMoments Inked Planner System to help me stay on task.

First off, I made a decision not to make many plans or jump back into work this January. I've spent the last 3 or 4 years running head first into design team work and my Etsy shop business, and that leaves little time for massive organizational efforts. What I've experienced is just the opposite of orderly and the entire year becomes cluttered and disorganized and I'm always two or three steps behind the game. (It's usually due to the fact that my studio space is never decluttered enough so it ends up spilling over into other areas of our house, thus there is always a pile of something somewhere (and more often than not it's five or six piles) and I never know where anything is.

So this year I opted out of doing that and instead, I'm overhauling every room in the house. We did the kids' room over the holiday break, along with their playroom. Now it's time to tackle the master bedroom and the studio, followed by the kitchen and living area. Things will get thrown out, donated or sold if there is not a space for them, and 2017 will be the year of order, not disorder.

And while I'm at it, I decided to make a cleaning schedule so that (ideally) we don't have this much chaos in the future. Lest you think we're just a bunch of dirty animals, I'll say that I don't really mind cleaning; finding the time to do it is the most difficult aspect of it. There is always something else that needs to be done--work, kids' activities, cooking...The cleaning is just the thing that gets put off the most because something more pressing needs attention. But I've realized that the more often you clean, the less time it takes! Duh, right?? I'm sure you already knew that. Giving things a quick wipe down every week takes 20 minutes, as opposed to the 60-90 minute sessions that take place if I go 3-4 weeks between big cleans. Twenty minutes is much easier to find than 90 in a busy schedule so this makes much more sense--and, bonus, the house will be clean!

I cut 80 little banners from the adhesive paper; 80 should last several weeks and then it'll be time for another round of cutting. My fingers are crossed that I'm still adhering to this cleaning schedule 4 months from now!

Next, I stamped different rooms on each banner. In my case, I needed kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. (Living room, dining room, attic, and garage stamps can also be found in the stamp set.) Our living room is part of our dining and kitchen area so I will be cleaning those when I do the kitchen.

There are 2 rooms I need to clean that do not have stamps, the playroom and the office. Instead, I simply stamped clean and initialed 'O' for office and 'PR' for playroom.

The banners have the sticky backs so they're easy to attach to the planner pages. I devised a workable schedule and placed the banner die cuts where I wanted them. I've designated Wednesdays and weekends for the cleaning, and decided that each bathroom and the kitchen would get done every week, while the rest of the rooms will be tidied up every other week. A quick wipe down or vacuum each week can be included as needed, but I didn't feel it was necessary to include those.

I also chose to adhere the banners on the month-at-a-glance page instead of on the weekly layout because I can get a better idea of the entire schedule this way.

Being that I've already made so much more progress on getting this crazy house in order than ever before, I'm confident I'll be able to continue on the path to get (and stay!) clean and get (and stay!) organized. Even my planner pages look neat and tidy with this system--which oddly helps me find motivation!

**And if you have any tips or easy recipes for your favorite natural cleaning supplies, I'd love it if you shared them with me in the comments :) Let's get off to a great start in 2017!**